The dominant method of beverage distribution essentially has considered the beverage truck driver a salesman. The driver's truck is loaded with a selection of beverages, and the driver calls on accounts on a route. At each account, the driver determines what beverages are required or desired by the account, then the driver locates the beverages in his truck, unloads the beverages and delivers them to the account. This process would be relatively easy if only a single beverage were involved. For instance, if the driver only distributed a single brand of soda, his truck would be completely loaded with that one beverage, and it could be easily unloaded at each account, and accounts could be serviced until the truck was completely empty. However, most trucks are loaded with a variety of brands and container sizes, requiring considerable effort by the driver to fill an order.
Accordingly, it is desirable to create a new beverage delivery system which takes full advantage of information available when a truck is loaded to improve delivery service. The truck can be loaded to specifically meet the orders of each account on a route and to minimize the time needed to select and unload the beverages ordered by each individual account.
Side loading route trucks are typically used for commercial deliveries to sales outlets that receive merchandise through a door at ground level, as opposed to a loading dock. Most bulk deliveries for large accounts are made utilizing tractor trailer units to deliver to a loading dock. The trailer has a rear door that open into a large interior area with a flat floor. The typical chain store wants such bulk delivery trucks in and out of their loading docks within a very narrow time span each morning. Furthermore, chain stores usually prefer to be the first delivery on a route. In order to satisfy these customer requirements, bottlers employ a large number of bulk rigs. Some of these bulk rigs may be left idle for much of the day following morning deliveries. The number of bulk rigs that are needed can be reduced by attempting to negotiate appropriate delivery times with chain stores, however this has not been a totally satisfactory solution. In an effort to overcome this problem, U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,132 describes a side load trailer which can be configured to carry bulk pallets. While this invention addresses the need to more efficiently utilize trailers, it does not provide for more efficient delivery of beverages to route accounts.
A principal object of the present invention is to provide a more efficient system for getting products from the point of manufacture or distribution to the retailer.
It is also an object of the present invention to facilitate the loading of beverage trucks with beverages sorted by account order rather than stock keeping unit or “SKU.”
It is a further object of the invention to provide improved truck designs to facilitate both the loading and unloading of trucks with beverages sorted by account order.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide truck designs that will permit loading combinations of bulk and route beverage orders.
It is another object of the invention to provide a mobile beverage cart to facilitate the loading and unloading of beverage trucks with beverages sorted by account order.
It is yet a further object of the inventor to provide a novel pallet for use with a matching hand truck to facilitate the loading and unloading of beverage trucks with beverages sorted by account order.